Soot.
A manure which has long been used and highly esteemed is soot. Obtained in the usual way, it generally contains some 3 per cent of nitrogen, chiefly in the form of sulphate of ammonia, and small quantities of potash and phosphates. A varying proportion of the nitrogen is present in the form of ammonia salts; and this undoubtedly confers upon soot its manurial value. It has long been used as a top-dressing for young grain and grass, and has been applied at the rate of from 40 to 60 bushels per acre. It has an indirect value as a slug-destroyer.
Many of the above-mentioned manures, of comparatively low value, will probably be less used in the future than they have been in the past, owing to the more abundant supplies of nitrate of soda and ammonia salts which are now available. Many of these substances have probably been used in mixed manures.
FOOTNOTES:
[240] See p. 324.
CHAPTER XVII.
SEWAGE AS A MANURE.
The value of sewage as a manure has been in the past enormously overrated, and much misunderstanding has existed on the part of the public on the question of the profitableness of the disposal of town sewage as an agricultural manure. Not a few of the erroneous opinions prevalent in the past regarding sewage have been due to statements made by scientific and other writers as to the enormous wealth lost to the world by many of the present methods of sewage disposal. Fortunately, however, the sewage question is now increasingly regarded as a question, in the first instance, of sanitary interest. As much has been written on the subject, and many schemes have been devised, at the expense of much ingenuity, for utilising its manurial properties, it may be desirable here to say a few words on the purely agricultural side of the question.